Board 8 > Mass Effect Legendary Edition Part 2 *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm nearing the end of the Citadel DLC (though every time I say that, more people hit me up to check out the baller new crib). Few things:

-- Anderson just gives me his pad, which is the second coolest Mass Effect home after Donovan Hock's mansion? Poor man doesn't think he has a chance of surviving this.

-- Just about all of the apartment/strip interactions are fun, though true to form, Jacob and Kaiden have the most boring ones LUL.

-- I did 183 pull-ups.

-- Javik's interaction might be the best. I had one moment when I realized we were on the set of the latest BLASTO, and then another when it finally hit me that Blasto films are patched-together piles of crap with elementary school production values. This scene had at least ten great jokes - it might be the best written comedy bit of the trilogy.

-- Conversely, Thane's memorial might be the most touching little moment of the trilogy (simple as it was). Comedy has been this DLC's central theme thus far, so I wasn't expecting the ability to invite Kolyat to my apartment for something like this.

-- Please tell me I'm wrong, but it seems like Kasumi might be the ONLY person I can't interact with before the party. Zaeed got a funny scene at the arcade, but the master thief is still MIA. Are they seriously gonna do my girl like that?

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Yeah, one of the writers said one of their biggest regrets is that Thane's death kinda gets glossed over in the moment, so that scene was designed to rectify that.

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You can actually interact with Kasumi before the party but it's somewhat well hidden.

Look for an object you can interact with in the Casino near the varren racing area. It's called "suspicious device" I believe.

Found it, thanks! Cute scene, but Javik steals the show in pre-party encounters.

Speaking of the party - I can see why hardcore fans view Citadel as the ultimate DLC. It really is a love letter addressed to all of us, and perhaps I'm eight years late to the party, but I'm still glad I got to enjoy it.

Also not sure if it's worth reloading the save just to fiddle with the options (ie: starting with a "lively" party versus a "relaxed" one). I kept a save slot free in case I decide to later.

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The parties are noticeably different depending on which one you roll with, so I'd say it's worth doing both.

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Might check it out, but I'm inching toward endgame. Once I get an ending (and the last trophy for upgrading a weapon to Level 10), I might call it a trilogy.

And not a day too soon! I've been playing this like crazy since launch; I honestly didn't think it would stretch this long - especially ME3, which is quite robust with all the side content and has taken me much longer than the first two. My final playtime will be just shy of 60 hours.

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https://youtu.be/Sd2_0_T1ouM

Best interaction from all the parties tbqh. Jack speaks for all of us. Except Leon

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If that's the scene I'm thinking of, then Shepard speaks for all of us.

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Oh that one is good too.

https://youtu.be/XFyfC0Xi3v0

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FFDragon posted...

https://youtu.be/Sd2_0_T1ouM

Best interaction from all the parties tbqh. Jack speaks for all of us. Except Leon

Probably helps that in the Mass Effect universe everyone has the exact same tits except Miranda.

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I assume you just mean for the humans. I'm pretty sure all the major Asari characters except maybe ME1 Liara are, umm, unique.
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Are they actually bigger or is it just because they are rocking cleavage that it makes them seem bigger?

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Jack's boobs are noticeably smaller

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TheRock1525 posted...

Are they actually bigger or is it just because they are rocking cleavage that it makes them seem bigger?

Possibly for Benezia. Definitely not for Samara and Morinth.

LeonhartFour posted...

Jack's boobs are noticeably smaller

Also very true.
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ME2 replay made me like Samara a lot more actually. I think my memory was of ranking her low which made me think I didn't much like her or something? So when I played again and enjoyed all the conversations with her, her excellent voice acting, etc, I was pleasantly surprised.

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Samara is fine. She tends to rank low because the series has a lot of squadmates that are better than fine.

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Does anyone actually keep Morinth unless they're specifically doing a 'bad Shepard' playthrough?

Although I always thought the fact that you can die to her in ME2 to be hilarious. Gives you the Ardat-Yakshi version of "I totally got tested, you can trust me".

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KamikazePotato posted...

Although I always thought the fact that you can die to her in ME2 to be hilarious. Gives you the Ardat-Yakshi version of "I totally got tested, you can trust me".

Given what they decided to do with Morinth - ie, having her impersonate Samara - this is the only fun thing about not killing her

They were definitely planning for her to have a bigger role in the rest of the game and to be interacted with by the other squadmates. Shame they didn't go in that direction.

https://youtu.be/zjKZ36kpPnU

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Honestly choosing Morinth ends up being incredibly dumb because her sales pitch is literally "I'm Samara but with a disease!"

Like even some bullshit like "I've been been to the Collector home world, I can show you the way through the Omega 4 Relay" then it turns out it's a lie after you kill Samara, and you're stuck with Morinth. Shepard couldn't reveal he/she killed Samara otherwise he'd lose the team's loyalty and thus Morinth offers to cover for him/her.


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Morinth saying she's the genetic destiny of the Asari when Ardat Yakshi are sterile always gets an eyebrow raise out of me. I've never kept her alive because there's just not enough content with her to justify it.

KamikazePotato posted...

Does anyone actually keep Morinth unless they're specifically doing a 'bad Shepard' playthrough?

I feel like even in that case you should just warn her to avoid putting your own life on the line.

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Honestly "bad Shepard" becomes "stupid Shepard" a bit often (choosing Morinth and later trying to romance Morinth would be an example of that). When I played renegade, I noticed how often you'd say something aggressive and snappy and the other person would be like "uh...sure?"

Like I remember at the start of ME2 when Miranda recommends recruiting Mordin first, and you can respond like "THIS IS MY SHIP STFU", and Miranda says "I know, it's just a recommendation", and you don't come off looking like an authoritative, badass leader, you just look like a stupid prick. She's obviously aware of the chain of command.

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I feel like they started playing Renegade for comedy more in 2. Perhaps it was because of that Commander Shepard is Such a Jerk video.

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God bless Mass Effect, the only franchise that can force me to "take a break" in the middle of its resolution to post here. I sometimes remind myself that the trilogy, including all DLC, was released over the course of five years. To put that in perspective, the entirety of ME was given to gamers in a timeframe shorter than the wait between BotW and BotW2. The scope of Bioware's ambition remains incredible, and their ability to engender such an emotional investment from fans in such a short amount of time - is perhaps unrivaled in gaming.

And it all makes me still lament how badly THEY FUCKED UP THIS ENDING

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Citadel is the real ending

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XIII_rocks posted...

When I played renegade, I noticed how often you'd say something aggressive and snappy and the other person would be like "uh...sure?"

I think my biggest problem with Mass Effect's writing (besides Kai Leng and the ending) is that Renegade is almost always the wrong choice. There's very very few points in the series where Paragon won't accomplish the same thing with a lesser body count and you not having to needlessly be a dick.

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Renegade interrupts and red Intimidate options are almost always beneficial to you, but yeah, just the generic Renegade option in a tense situation usually results in more work for you and more dead people.

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No who plays Renegade Shep plays pure Renegade anyway. It's always like 75% Renegade 25% Paragon.

There's plenty of Renegade choices that work! There's a few that are even objectively superior to the Paragon choice instead of the two being relatively equal in terms of outcome.

I'm still finishing 3, but I look up a lot of these things after just to see possibilities. And I'm having trouble thinking of many instances where Renegade choices are better that didn't cascade from previous Renegade choices. Like besides isolated minor war asset arguments or getting "free" Renegade points.

Although I didn't hesitate to punch that one Quarian admiral in the gut.
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Off the top of my head deleting the heretic geth gives you more of a chance to make peace between the geth and quarians.

Honestly though both sides sort of end up equal in the end with a few choices preferring one side or the other.

kevwaffles posted...

And I'm having trouble thinking of many instances where Renegade choices are better that didn't cascade from previous Renegade choices.

Spartan kicking that dude off the tower.

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You talk too much.

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I would 100% keep the Collector Ship, but I'd tell Hackett to get in there asap rather than TIM

I guess ME3 bears out why giving Cerberus that ship's knowledge isn't a good idea but there's ways to not destroy it entirely and lose all the good tech and also keep it out of Cerberus hands

Whatever, I digress - point is that ME1's big game-ending decision is pretty black and white, but I always felt ME2's paragon choice there was a little too...naively idealistic.

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I thought ME1's endgame choice was pretty nebulous, actually (I remember pausing a while before making my decision). It may be inadvertent, but the game kinda presents the choice as sacrificing a ton of human soldiers in order to save the Council. This first seemed like a strange "Paragon" option for Shepard in a game where the Paragon options until that point revolved around saving as many lives as possible. It's easy to miss the part where the Council is aboard the Destiny Ascension, and its crew of 10,000 asari would perish if you opted to protect the humans (again, because the game frames the choice as "Council vs Human Soldiers"). Either way, many people die regardless of Shepard's choice, and none of them deserve it.

That dilemma is one of the reasons why I think ME1's endgame is so strong - it felt extremely weighty in a way that really made me anticipate the sequel. Hell, even the Anderson vs Udina choice felt significant (albeit easy).

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My wife is mostly playing Renegade, but she's gone Paragon with most of the "major" decisions.

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The most nebulous part of the Mass Effect 1 endgame choice is that they give you a third "Focus on Sovereign" choice which somehow plays out exactly the same as letting the Council die intentionally except you get less Renegade points.
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kevwaffles posted...

The most nebulous part of the Mass Effect 1 endgame choice is that they give you a third "Focus on Sovereign" choice which somehow plays out exactly the same as letting the Council die intentionally except you get less Renegade points.

Yes, this confused the heck out of my wife because she didn't know if it meant the Council would die or not and it had been so long since I played that I couldn't answer her with full confidence.

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Did not realise that the Eden Prime mission in ME3 used the same music as in ME1

That's cool

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I'm feeling thoroughly mass effected out right now.

I haven't touched it in almost two weeks and I'm just starting the Citadel DLC.

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Yeah, I'm hoping this topic lives throughout 2021 with an occasional uptick in discussion or a cool post... but I think we've run our course. The time flew by, as it certainly didn't feel like I had Mass Effect on my plate for a month and a half, which I'd say is a hallmark of quality gaming.

That said, I have no intention of replaying any of the games (and probably won't until the NEXT time I'm really feeling that itch, which will probably be another several years down the line) and in fact, feel like a break from gaming will suit me well. I'm almost glad the rest of the year is looking barren!

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Yeah I've lost all desire for a full-fledged inept-Shep run.

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I still want to finish but am unable to play currently. Next week probably.

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It's been nice to just sit back and watch as she takes things at a leisurely pace.

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ive been playing on and off since this came out, just got to Rannoch, having a good time. even though I beat ME3 three times I barely remember some of this. ME2 ended up being a pain for me to get thru as I had thoroughly exhausted that game's content a long time ago (pretty sure I beat it 18 times to see as much as possible). ME2 still great though but damn I love the ME3 gameplay

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ME3 satisfies my bloodlust man. I want to unlock the Armax Arena and just beat the shit out of ppl

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ME3 gameplay the best

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Aww I liked the brief resurgence of Mass Effect.

I've been taking breaks in between games and playing 3-4 other things to avoid burnout. Just finished 2 and will probably get to the finale in a few months here.

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God damnit. I just got to this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WwAwSz_kVU

And any scene with that soundtrack has been completely killed by watching Gamerpoop

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Having watched a lot of ME:LE streams recently, I actually wanted to play some again so I popped in my old ME 3 disc and then just did a mission. After that for shits and giggles I checked out the multiplayer and actually got in a game. I was Lvl 1 Sentinel with a Lvl 16 Infiltrator. Didn't make it because I just didn't have enough (fire)power to take out enemies quickly.

Mission after that went way smoother, especially when another high-level person joined in, but then my connection dropped during extraction :(. Big sad.

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